From Storms to Serenity: A Birthday Reflection

Ever wondered how a birthday celebrated on Friday the 13th could become a personal new year filled with hope and renewal? Join me as I embrace the mystical charm of my unique birthday and reflect on the past year's journey of patience, understanding, and growth. Discover the invaluable lessons in prioritizing self-care and letting go of the uncontrollable. With an optimistic heart, I share my aspirations for a fresh start, focusing on what truly matters to me and my family.

From weathering the storms—literally, thanks to a hurricane—to finding gratitude in unexpected blessings, this episode uncovers the power of resilience and joy. Let's celebrate life together as I extend a warm invitation for future collaborations and interactions with you, my listeners. Don't miss out on the lyrical vibes of the week, featuring the soul-soothing "Loving on Myself" by Rochelle Williams and more. Stay connected with all our updates on social media and join me for this special birthday episode, a celebration of life, positivity, and endless possibilities.

Chapters

• 0:35 Birthday Reflections and New Year Goals
• 16:00 Gratitude and Reflections on Birthday
• 22:07 Social Media Handles and Birthday Wishes

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:35

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Gag is Pot. I am your girl, charli Chanté. Thank you for joining me on another day. And guess what? Today is it's my birthday. Ayyy, one time for the birthday chick, two times for the birthday chick. The birthday chick, two times for the birthday chick. Oh we, I'd be waiting 364 days every year for this day to come around. And, oh my gosh, like, today is friday the 13th and I know everybody is so superstitious on friday the 13th, but not your girl. This did. I thrive on this day, this day and in the year I was actually born. I was actually born on a friday the 13th, but not your girl. This is the day I thrive on, this day, this day and the year I was actually born, I was actually born on a Friday the 13th. So y'all know I'm here. But thank you for joining me on another episode. If you have not already, grab you something to drink. Grab you a little Snaky Snack.

Speaker 1: 1:35

We're going to go ahead and jump into today's episode, because I got notes for the episode today, but I really don't know how it's going to go. Like, I got my little notes or whatever, but we're going to see how it's going to go. You know it's my birthday. I can just freestyle it whatever. Do what I do, you know I'm at control. You know hair dip, whatever. You know. Walk around here looking like miss sophia, no more. So I'm gonna turn up, I'm gonna have me an amazing good weekend, like I just cannot wait. Cannot wait, cannot get out all right. But um, let me see, let me try to. No, I'm gonna hold it in my hand. So y'all see me looking down trying to do my notes. But come on in. If you have not already, um, go ahead and take some time. And you know, take a few seconds and hit that subscribe button. You know, make sure you follow in the socials. I'm gonna tell y'all the end at the end of the episode. But just in case you don't make it to the end of the episode and you're new here, make sure you follow socials. The gag is pod. It's the same on Instagram and it's the same on YouTube. And then make sure you're hitting that download or subscribe button wherever you listen to your podcast. At that way, whenever a new episode was released, which is every Friday, it automatically downloaded for you. So by the time you wake up and you get ready to drive to work. It's going to already be there because it releases at 5 am every Friday. So, yeah, yeah, that's what you should do.

Speaker 1: 3:08

But today is my birthday and I always say happy new year to me. So I say my birthday is the start of my new year. In my world, december 31st is not the new year for me. I say my birthday is the actual new year for me. It's another rotation, you know. So, instead of waiting until December 31st, I start myself on December 13th and you know, trying to try to get my year started. You know it's a couple of days, you know like 18 day difference, you know. But I go ahead and get my year started and before the day before my birthday comes up, you know, I try to set out my goals for the year. You know, like what, what went good this year and what didn't, what I want to accomplish next year and things like that, what didn't, what I want to accomplish next year and things like that.

Speaker 1: 4:00

And I can say this year that just passed has been one of. It has been a year of patient. I was oh my God, oh my gosh, like I was turned every which way, but loose during this past year, but it was definitely a time that I needed to lock in, that I needed to have just the utmost patience and I think this year was the year of patience and understanding for me, which isn't a bad thing. I just think that I was too patient and too understanding at certain times, you know, and a lot of things that I let fly this year. I know definitely I can't let those fly again in this new year. Those fly again in this new year. You know just, it was a lot of challenges, there's a lot of people had me effed up and you know I let have.

Speaker 1: 5:22

And this year I want to change that because I learned I feel like all my lessons are self-taught this year and I learned this year that, regardless of my relationship or my input or my output on my view or something is not going to change the trajectory of a situation. A situation is going to be what it's going to be, regardless if I put my two cents in, whether I'm mad, whether I'm upset or, you know, whatever the case may be, I have to realize. I had to realize that you know other people's situations and choices. They don't affect me, and I was given way too much energy way too much, play into a lot of situations this year, play into a lot of situations this year, um, and it caused me a lot of undue stress and a lot of unnecessary tears, a lot of unnecessary anger, uh, and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 6:27

And I said this year, you know, I'm just a situation just going to have to be what it's going to have to be, whether you know, because nothing I can say or do is can change if it's within, if it doesn't have to deal with me personally, or it doesn't have to deal with my kids, my immediate family personally, it's not for me, it's not my burden to bear, it's not my burden to bear. And I got to this year, I got to realize that I can't be Captain Save them. You know sometimes, sometimes you can't save everybody, you can't save them, you know, sometimes you got to let people find out on their own. But just the person that I am, my character, I just want to see everybody happy and I want to see everybody succeed. But I have to realize that that's not my job. My job is to make Charlie happy and the people, the immediate people that are around me, happy as well. Excuse me every time I get on here. Y'all know I start yawning and carrying on, so forgive me.

Speaker 1: 7:29

I will say this has been one of the while I've had to be patient and understanding and people still had me effed up. It was one of the funnest years that I have had in a long time. When I tell you, oh my gosh, I have had so much fun this year. I have ripped in the girls, my grandmother, I have ripped in random streets, ok, but not in a bad way, in a very good way. Had a family vacation, got to hang out with some cousins and stuff that I hadn't seen in a long time, and it really it really felt good. It really really felt good. I enjoyed that.

Speaker 1: 8:19

I haven't traveled in like, oh, I would be lying, I did. I did go somewhere in October, so it's been a minute since I traveled, but you know I got some travel coming up. I got some travel coming up, so I can't wait for that. Oh, where my list go, so what? I don't even know how long this episode going to be. I'm looking over here at my counter, okay, so this might be like a short episode. I don't know, because I'm going through these bullets kind of fast. So what's next on my list.

Speaker 1: 9:00

Uh, what I hope to get out of this year. What I hope to get out of this year is more love, more life, uh, happiness, understanding, um, just making sure that I'm a better person overall, making sure that I'm a better individual for myself, making sure that I'm a better friend, even though I'm already a dope ass friend. You better ask them people around me and become a better person. Mother, I'm a dope mom already, you know. So it's not that I'm bad in these areas, but there's always room for improvements. I will say that this latter half of the year I was so much in mommy mode that I started losing myself, because New Face does competitive swim.

Speaker 1: 9:56

So since September we've probably been at swim meets probably every other weekend, if not some months. Back to back weekends Uh, he just had his last one of the 2024 year, um, last weekend, and you know year last weekend. And now it's going to be weird because I'm going to have my weekends back for like six weeks and that's going to be really weird. But during this time I'm going to take the time to take care of myself. I know I definitely got to clean up my eating because if you've ever been to a swim competition. You are there for a long time and this past weekend his swim, uh, his call time for swim was 6 30 am, you know. It was 45 minutes away. So I we had to get up super early to do um, that, um, you know, and I was so busy because we're new in the world uh, we're not new in the world of swim, but we're new in the world. We're not new in the world of swim, but we're new in the world of competitive swim.

Speaker 1: 10:58

So I was just trying to learn a lot and I think I was getting burnt out because I didn't know what to expect and so I was just overdoing it just a little bit. I know I overdid it a little bit during the summer because I was traveling back to back to back to the point. If you don't take time for yourself and your body, your body will make time for you. And I ended I did end up in urgent care, you know having to get an IV because I was dehydrated, because I was just running, running, running and you know I didn't have any time for myself and I've noticed that when I just continue to run and run and run like that, that I'm running from something. So I had to sit back and I had to take some time and I pretty much got that worked out for the most part, but I still love to travel and got so much of it planned for next year. It is crazy. It is super, super crazy. But I do have to start taking more time for myself.

Speaker 1: 12:01

And in the midst of doing that, other people are going to have to understand, and one of my biggest things that I said this year is I'm going to have to start telling people. No, I'm just one of those people that just wants to be there for everybody. But this year, being there for everybody got me, got my feelings hurt. Um it, it really took a toll on me. So I, I gotta, I gotta learn how to say no, and I have to. I like, like I just previously said, I have to understand that my no is not the end, all be all. It's not a life or death on a situation. You know I would never. If it was a serious situation, I would never say you know, I had the ability to help, I would never say no to it. But if it's something like hey, you know, you want to go do X, y, z, I have the ability to say no, because my body needs rest, I need time to myself, because I think it's this finna sound bad. I think.

Speaker 1: 13:06

For the last six months I've probably been to the gym maybe 10 times, and I'm someone who normally goes to the gym like five or six times a week, and I'm someone who normally goes to the gym like five or six times a week and it just I kind of let myself go. You know, put on a couple pounds. But you know, I'm acknowledging these things so that I can fix them. You know, because the first step is just acknowledging. You know we're every year we're supposed to come become wiser. Um, you know, we're every year we're supposed to come become wiser, and um, and I, and I am, I think one of the things this year is I lost some people around me.

Speaker 1: 13:43

I lost some people that was close to me. But the crazy part is, the same way I say, I lost them, they didn't die, I just lost them. Um, you know, and and there are people that are like super close to me who I thought that we was locked in like this, and you know, I found out. You know, I found out that we wasn't really locked in like that, you know, and that kind of it kind of hurt a little bit. I'm lying, it hurt a lot of it. But you know, saying that's one of the things that I got to work on, I got to put on, I got to put that boundary there. I got to set that boundary and have people understand and I feel like this year coming up, once I start putting these boundaries in, I have a feeling that a lot more people are going to start fading away and you know, god, take people out your life to make room for the people that you need in there. So I mean, there's that.

Speaker 1: 14:43

You know I'm excited, I'm very optimistic for what's to come. You know opportunities and just all the good things, all the feels. I'm just super, super happy, I'm in a super good place and you know, I'm just thankful, just thankful for it all, thankful for you guys more than anything. You know, because y'all are, y'all are dope, you know I, I see that y'all comments. You know y'all inboxes, cause why is y'all shy to put them on the main page? Why y'all just gotta keep inboxing me like or texting me like. That's weird, like, just just put it on the main page so other people can see that, you know, so that everybody else can get the joyous me, you know, um. So yeah, so this this year is gonna be something and I'm very, very excited. Y'all. See, I'm still, you know, still got the temporary setup, you know, which is neither here nor there, but steady working to make a new space to make it comfortable for me.

Speaker 1: 16:00

I think when that hurricane hit this year, I think that was that challenged me the most. You've heard me, I think I've said it, I can't remember the thing that challenged me the most this year was that hurricane, and I think I mentioned I may not have, but I said I wanted to talk to God and ask God why, before a long time, I couldn't go to him because I was too angry. You can't go to God and ask God why, before a long time, I couldn't go to him because I was too angry. You can't go to God and pray when you're angry and I think that was when I and that's been over the last since the 13th and it's been about 60 something days since the hurricane hit, and you know, boy, god will drag you through some shit when he trying to get your attention and you know, I just thank. I thank him for all the lessons, all the blessings, because in the same time that he was taking me through, um, that situation you, I was I didn't realize that there was a blessing that was coming just a couple of days later. So, you know, I definitely, definitely realized that I'm blessed and I'm looking forward to the other blessings that I have no clue that are going to be coming my way. I'm just going to be real receptive of it all. Let's see what else we got on this little list. So I'm trying to stay on. Oh, that was my last bullet point. Oh, my God. So this is going to be like a kind of small short episode. It's okay, it's okay, you, long short, thankful for it all. Um, thankful for it all.

Speaker 1: 17:54

But since it's my birthday and I can do this episode any kind of way, I want to, um, thank y'all for all of the inquiries, um, for the ones that have been hitting me that want to collab, and different stuff like that. So I guess I'll take this opportunity before we get to the song lyric of the week. I'll just take this opportunity If you want to collab or if you have an item or a book that you want me to review or something like that, please go ahead and shoot an email to us and my assistant will get to it. The gag is pod at gmailcom, because some kind of weird way, my personal email is out there and I've been getting collab and inquiries in my personal email, which is crazy. So if you want to collab or if you want to send something because I've had people asking they send stuff um, hit me on, hit the, hit the email. The gag is pod at gmail. It is all one word um. So that's for any collaboration, any guest appearances, anything like that. Just hit that. My assistant will reach back out to you and we will get that thing jumping.

Speaker 1: 19:11

Um, is there anything else? Um, no, I no, I don't have anything else for y'all. I am so sad because, like, I be getting on here and I just be so happy to talk to y'all, but it's my birthday and you know I'm just super excited because, like I don't is, my birthday falls on a weekend. I'm just super. Yeah, I'm just. I'm just in a better space, I'm just in a happier space and I'm just in a happier space and I'm just ready for whatever this weekend has to bring. Like, I am so super excited.

Speaker 1: 19:55

So let's go ahead and jump into the song lyric of the week. I feel like I'm forgetting something, but I probably ain't forgetting nothing. Let's go ahead and jump into the song lyric of the week. Now, I couldn't. It was a bunch of songs. I ain't gonna lie to y'all.

Speaker 1: 20:12

If it was up to me, instead of having a song lyric of the week, we would have a song lyric. We would have a song playlist, which I think I might do for next year, because I do my episodes, like I write them out or whatever, and then I put my song lyric of the week on there, but then, like after I write it out, like I've been hearing other songs, so I'll be like, oh, this would be a good song for this week, oh, this would be a good song for this week, um, and I end up with like all these songs and I'm like I can't just pick one. Um, so I have a couple for this week. So the first song lyric of the week is Loving on Myself by Rochelle Williams. The second song that I have for you for my song lyric of the week is Blessings, remix by Friday, and then I think that was the only other one. I'm trying to look, because I didn't put them all in there. Um, and then I think this one has been a song lyric of the week, but I wanted again, um, stay in the moment by Tyra Shantae. So those are my three, uh, song lyrics of the week.

Speaker 1: 21:31

Three song lyrics of the week man, y'all. It's good to have another rotation around the sun. It's good to wake up on this side of the dirt, yeah, and I think this is a good place to end it because I got to get out here. I'm going to get me some coffee and yeah, like I'm finna, get up out of here. I just wanted to slide through with y'all for a couple minutes, you know just, hey, got too much sauce, got too much sauce. Well, I'll say what you gonna do for my birthday. What do I get for my birthday. But thank y'all for joining me again.

Speaker 1: 22:07

If you're not following us, follow us on. The gag is pod at gmailcom. The same handle. The gag is pod on Instagram. If you want to follow my personal page, that is smartfit underscore Ogie. I can never think of how it goes and that's been my name on there for Umpteen years Smartfit underscore Ogie. For my personal page On YouTube, you can watch the visuals Of this. The gag is pod, like I said. Um. Thank you for joining me on another Episode. Happy birthday to me. Bye, guys.